This seems like an old case of "never trust the client".
A wireless LAN client is by default a mobile computer. Only lazy or stingy companies would connect stationary computers by wireless.
A mobile computer will leave the company with its employee on business trips or weekends, otherwise they wouldn't need a mobile one. It will then need to connect to an external network, hotspot or 3G link. (Except for the rare case of purely internal mobility on large campuses protected by armed guards with bag and suitcase inspection on every leave)
A computer that has left the direct observable company area and/or connected to an external network is by definition a piece of untrusted equipment. It may be a bit more trusted or secure than a computer connecting from a public Internet cafe somewhere in rural Nigeria, but not by a large margin.
A company is foolish if it allows a mobile computer to behave as a truly internal, trusted resource and operate on sensitive corporate data or transfer any data outside the data center.
A company is also foolish if it allows a stationary computer to do the same, since no computer is truly stationary or physically impenetrable unless you weld shut the case and bolt it on the ceiling.
You either control the workplace environment and all things and data going in and out - which you can't above a certain size threshold or budget - or you take measures to keep the data in your data center where you *can* do that.
That's why I'm a big fan of virtualized desktops and a two-factor authentication for the users. Virtualized desktop sessions will also protect the data in transit, end-to-end, using a password or other secret communicated out of band.
After that, security between client computer and network doesn't matter that much anymore. Even keyloggers would not be able to extract any existing data, only newly typed text. It would take full-screen video capturing with OCR to make out any secrets and even then only the documents the user opens and views in that session. Both could be attained easier and less noticeable by shoulder-surfing or hiding cameras in the room, so I'm not too worried about it.
If you ever manage to find a material or process that can repeatably induce a temperature gradient in whatever when there was none before without needing external energy input, make sure to patent it hard and fast.
We had 8 months of winter in Europe, with record snow down to Spain and temperatures lower than they were in the last 30 years. Were constantly reminded that it was a seasonal event, weather, that had nothing to do with climate.
After a mere 3 weeks of summer, with record hot temperatures, the media is already reviving the global warming mantra.
I was modded into oblivion when I half-jokingly asserted that record lows are weather and record highs are climate change, but now we see exactly that.
8 mo. of the harshest winter for 30 years = press says "weather". 4 we. of the hottest summer for 30 years = press says "global warming, doom, hellfire".
I have no problem with either explanation, but it sure should be consistent.
In Asia, there isn't even a single piece of Graffiti in the darkest corner of the subways.
In our city, it's spray paint and gum everywhere.
All other litter is irrelevant as it can be cleaned in seconds by machines. But spray paint and chewing gum is Hell. When someone rages out and beats down a sprayer or gum litterer, it's certainly "I've certainly seen nothing, officer" for me.
For our run-of-the-mill conference rooms that *are* showing Excel and Powerpoint all day long, we surely spent enough on digital cabling. We put all the wires in conduits, from the table around the walls through the server room and from there to the ceiling. 20-50m depending on the layout of that particular room.
Money saved from not having to tear up the walls, floors and ceilings and rebuilding half the room went into digital cabling for the insane lengths needed to re-use existing conduits. Minus construction, plus fiber means no practical difference in total costs. But saved maybe a week and a lot of dirt.
Since then, we have been enjoying perfect, razor-sharp images.
Sure, analog video with a surface mount conduit would have cost 1.000 bucks less and look only a bit shabby and only a bit fuzzy.
During all those meetings, employees looking at even slightly fuzzed thin lines and serifs transfers a message: "we are sacrificing workmanship to lower costs". That's what our competitors can do - we won't.
Chewing gum is *the* single thing I truly despise in our free societies. It is ridiculously cheap, ubiquitous, popular - and more stable in the environment than granite. People chew that stuff all the time and spit it everywhere - all floors, streets, corners, sidewalks of all cities are riddled with that decades-old, positively eternal chewed chewing gum.
Just look at the streets on a busy intersection: thousands of flattened chewing gum remains, outlasting the tarmac they are embedded in by decades.
Sometimes when I look down on the city floor for some reason and notice the gum, I have a hard time regaining the faith in personal freedom, pushing back the urge to cry for Singaporean laws against that filth.
Honestly: what part of individual freedom demands that people can spit this stuff everywhere?
Be prepared to spend about 600 USD for flawless 1080p video over 30-50m or 1600 USD for the same - in fiber optics over 2km.
That is a steep price, but peanuts for a high class conference room, where the projector alone usually costs more than twenty grand.
I mean, who on Earth would equip a state-of-the-art meeting and conference room with a 20.000 USD projector, 5.000 USD remote-control system and 300 chairs costing upward of 100 bucks each and then chicken out on a digital video link to live with blurry VGA instead?
We've done that on our conference rooms: With a good VGA-DVI scaler and a cheap DVI switch, we can connect every laptop currently in existence. DVI/HDMI/DisplayPort laptops can connect directly, VGA laptops are connected by a 2m extreme-quality analog cable and then converted to digital. After that, it's all digital, running 30-50m through the conduits. We did fiber optics, because of all the high-voltage cables running along them. Was 2000 EUR per room including fiber optical cable, DVI switch remote and installation. With all active components inside grounded metal boxes by default and only fiber cabling outside, is also very resistant to video eavesdropping, even TEMPEST attacks, ground loops, lightning strikes etc. - and most of all 100% immune to cell phone interference.
Today, we would probably also do USB 2.0 and audio over the optic cabling along with the video, adding even more coolness to that solution.
As projectors came down in price, there's enough resources freed to do quality cabling. Small fonts and spreadsheet lines getting lost in fuzz are optional these days. I don't miss buzzing cellphone interference on video/audio presentations...
I don't know where you work, but mine doesn't slip out unless I want to.
On a serious note, there's also lockable HDMI. But DVI is well enough. Two cables for video and audio is acceptable, at least compared to VGA blurring after several meters of cabling.
Of course we need a fallback for the ancient projectors available in ancient conference hotels for insane daily rates from the inflated future.
It's just nice to have a small set of passive adapters (digital video to VGA and DVI to HDMI or vice versa) to be able to actually use a digital video input on the projector if it has one - and to slightly push those ancient conference hotels into preparing to phase out VGA. Slowly, decade-slowly, of course.
The difference in video quality is worth it, at 720p resolutions and above, with the usual long cable runs we routinely have on conferences and meetings.
VGA only. Digital video is for heretics and hopeless perfectionists. A 1400x1050 image on an external projector is meant to be blurry and I like it that way.
Those lying around in the bargain bin don't, but you're right, USB2 is hitting its limits there, making USB3 required soon.
The higher speed will be noticed, but the real-world difference is probably not going to blow everyone out of their seats unless they do full drive image backups for a living.
DisplayPort may be more computer-oriented than HDMI, but carrying USB signals doesn't wow me in the least. HDMI's latest standards in 1.4 can do that as well AND Gigabit Ethernet - and they didn't need to implement a totally incompatible format.
A wider range of audio formats? Yes, but why? Really? 2 channels PCM, 5.1 channels DTS, 7.1 channel SDDS and then, what?
Oh and the HDMI has royalties on it. Until the patents run out in 15 years, manufacturers will pay, what, 15 cents, per unit? I can really feel the pain there.
If they need a computer oriented connection, use USB2,3,x - USB video will do fine.
The rest is just reinventing the wheel combined with a nice inner platform effect.
Maybe it's time for another law: "Every connector will evolve until it can read USB"
Then make it 3 standardized classes with different (and downward-compatible) connectors:
A for 20V, 2A B for 20V, 5A C for 20V, 10A
Maybe add higher connectors in that fashion, but notebooks needing more than 20V*10A=200W are rare enough. You need a jet-engine-powered fan to put off those 200W of heat anyway, so carrying around a special brick does not add more nuisance to it.
Why don't we make the power brick small and actually build it enough INTO the laptop?
"Silly question", you'll say, but please tell me all those use cases, where the user *can* save on bulk and weight of the power brick and benefits hugely from having the thing in a separate unit dangling along the cable?
A short meeting? Surfing on the couch for a minute? Travelling between 2 company offices where you know is another power supply already there?
Compare that to the other use cases: Travelling with notebook AND power brick AND cable in one large bag. Rolling and unrolling that cabling every time you pack up your gear for a longer stay. Have that brick drop to the floor when unpacking Forget that brick in the office on the way to the meeting-that-saves-the-company? Mix up two different bricks while packing up after a meeting with business partners?
Make the brick smaller - look at Kensington aftermarket parts - and then include it in the laptop itself. Solves a ton of problems with no further regulation needed.
Slashdot Mirror
Cheaper/better/faster/easier than the alternative?
They wouldn't do it just for kicks, would they?
This seems like an old case of "never trust the client".
A wireless LAN client is by default a mobile computer. Only lazy or stingy companies would connect stationary computers by wireless.
A mobile computer will leave the company with its employee on business trips or weekends, otherwise they wouldn't need a mobile one. It will then need to connect to an external network, hotspot or 3G link. (Except for the rare case of purely internal mobility on large campuses protected by armed guards with bag and suitcase inspection on every leave)
A computer that has left the direct observable company area and/or connected to an external network is by definition a piece of untrusted equipment. It may be a bit more trusted or secure than a computer connecting from a public Internet cafe somewhere in rural Nigeria, but not by a large margin.
A company is foolish if it allows a mobile computer to behave as a truly internal, trusted resource and operate on sensitive corporate data or transfer any data outside the data center.
A company is also foolish if it allows a stationary computer to do the same, since no computer is truly stationary or physically impenetrable unless you weld shut the case and bolt it on the ceiling.
You either control the workplace environment and all things and data going in and out - which you can't above a certain size threshold or budget - or you take measures to keep the data in your data center where you *can* do that.
That's why I'm a big fan of virtualized desktops and a two-factor authentication for the users. Virtualized desktop sessions will also protect the data in transit, end-to-end, using a password or other secret communicated out of band.
After that, security between client computer and network doesn't matter that much anymore. Even keyloggers would not be able to extract any existing data, only newly typed text. It would take full-screen video capturing with OCR to make out any secrets and even then only the documents the user opens and views in that session. Both could be attained easier and less noticeable by shoulder-surfing or hiding cameras in the room, so I'm not too worried about it.
I like how CO2 always does the bad things.
Now that we know it makes the summers hotter and the winters cooler, we should double carbon taxes. It's only fair.
If you ever manage to find a material or process that can repeatably induce a temperature gradient in whatever when there was none before without needing external energy input, make sure to patent it hard and fast.
Repeal the law of thermodynamics!
Always the bad one of course.
That's why we need that draconian tax, don't you understand?
And I see you were just exhaling that stuff.
Remain calm and stay put. Carbon police is already underway.
We had 8 months of winter in Europe, with record snow down to Spain and temperatures lower than they were in the last 30 years. Were constantly reminded that it was a seasonal event, weather, that had nothing to do with climate.
After a mere 3 weeks of summer, with record hot temperatures, the media is already reviving the global warming mantra.
I was modded into oblivion when I half-jokingly asserted that record lows are weather and record highs are climate change, but now we see exactly that.
8 mo. of the harshest winter for 30 years = press says "weather".
4 we. of the hottest summer for 30 years = press says "global warming, doom, hellfire".
I have no problem with either explanation, but it sure should be consistent.
It's sewage pipes. There's some water in there, of course, and it could overflow with the next thunderstorm.
One sweep with the broom or one strong wind and the cigarette butts are gone. Along with all the other filth - except for the gum.
The gum you spit out today will sit there on the pavement for as long as you live, unless the road gets dug up or renovated first.
That's the reason why I only frown mildly upon litterers in general, but totally hate gum spewers.
Saliva is only slightly more sterile than the kitchen floor of a frat house.
It may not all be harmful germs, but there sure is a lot of bacteria living there.
Human bite wounds, though relatively rare, have a higher rate of infections than cat or dog bites.
For people ruining the city, harming everyone much for next to no gain for them - who isn't?
It's a cultural thing.
In Asia, there isn't even a single piece of Graffiti in the darkest corner of the subways.
In our city, it's spray paint and gum everywhere.
All other litter is irrelevant as it can be cleaned in seconds by machines. But spray paint and chewing gum is Hell. When someone rages out and beats down a sprayer or gum litterer, it's certainly "I've certainly seen nothing, officer" for me.
People litter all the time, from soda cans to cigarette butts, they don't fuse with the pavement for all eternity.
People can litter all they want, but not that eternal chewy mortar stuff.
Every rose has its thorns, and the gum definitely is one thorn.
There must be millions of tourists planning their vacation around visiting that famous gum wall, I can really feel the urge.
OTOH, Chernobyl is also a kind of a tourist attraction, much like the lawless city of Tijuana. Doesn't make it any less Ewwwww
For our run-of-the-mill conference rooms that *are* showing Excel and Powerpoint all day long, we surely spent enough on digital cabling. We put all the wires in conduits, from the table around the walls through the server room and from there to the ceiling. 20-50m depending on the layout of that particular room.
Money saved from not having to tear up the walls, floors and ceilings and rebuilding half the room went into digital cabling for the insane lengths needed to re-use existing conduits. Minus construction, plus fiber means no practical difference in total costs. But saved maybe a week and a lot of dirt.
Since then, we have been enjoying perfect, razor-sharp images.
Sure, analog video with a surface mount conduit would have cost 1.000 bucks less and look only a bit shabby and only a bit fuzzy.
During all those meetings, employees looking at even slightly fuzzed thin lines and serifs transfers a message: "we are sacrificing workmanship to lower costs". That's what our competitors can do - we won't.
Or to use a car analogy: "The best or nothing."
Chewing gum is *the* single thing I truly despise in our free societies. It is ridiculously cheap, ubiquitous, popular - and more stable in the environment than granite. People chew that stuff all the time and spit it everywhere - all floors, streets, corners, sidewalks of all cities are riddled with that decades-old, positively eternal chewed chewing gum.
Just look at the streets on a busy intersection: thousands of flattened chewing gum remains, outlasting the tarmac they are embedded in by decades.
Sometimes when I look down on the city floor for some reason and notice the gum, I have a hard time regaining the faith in personal freedom, pushing back the urge to cry for Singaporean laws against that filth.
Honestly: what part of individual freedom demands that people can spit this stuff everywhere?
VGA degrades visibly after more than 20-30 meters. However, as with all analog signals, it degrades gracefully, just blurring out.
Digital video usually degrades later, but with a bang.
Anyway: digital video can be transferred pixel-perfect for maybe 300m or more using the right equipment.
Example: any of these, if you have doubts:
http://www.gefen.com/kvm/dproductlisting.jsp?listingCategory=Extenders&productType=dvi
Be prepared to spend about 600 USD for flawless 1080p video over 30-50m or 1600 USD for the same - in fiber optics over 2km.
That is a steep price, but peanuts for a high class conference room, where the projector alone usually costs more than twenty grand.
I mean, who on Earth would equip a state-of-the-art meeting and conference room with a 20.000 USD projector, 5.000 USD remote-control system and 300 chairs costing upward of 100 bucks each and then chicken out on a digital video link to live with blurry VGA instead?
We've done that on our conference rooms: With a good VGA-DVI scaler and a cheap DVI switch, we can connect every laptop currently in existence. DVI/HDMI/DisplayPort laptops can connect directly, VGA laptops are connected by a 2m extreme-quality analog cable and then converted to digital. After that, it's all digital, running 30-50m through the conduits. We did fiber optics, because of all the high-voltage cables running along them. Was 2000 EUR per room including fiber optical cable, DVI switch remote and installation. With all active components inside grounded metal boxes by default and only fiber cabling outside, is also very resistant to video eavesdropping, even TEMPEST attacks, ground loops, lightning strikes etc. - and most of all 100% immune to cell phone interference.
Today, we would probably also do USB 2.0 and audio over the optic cabling along with the video, adding even more coolness to that solution.
As projectors came down in price, there's enough resources freed to do quality cabling. Small fonts and spreadsheet lines getting lost in fuzz are optional these days. I don't miss buzzing cellphone interference on video/audio presentations...
I don't know where you work, but mine doesn't slip out unless I want to.
On a serious note, there's also lockable HDMI. But DVI is well enough. Two cables for video and audio is acceptable, at least compared to VGA blurring after several meters of cabling.
Of course we need a fallback for the ancient projectors available in ancient conference hotels for insane daily rates from the inflated future.
It's just nice to have a small set of passive adapters (digital video to VGA and DVI to HDMI or vice versa) to be able to actually use a digital video input on the projector if it has one - and to slightly push those ancient conference hotels into preparing to phase out VGA. Slowly, decade-slowly, of course.
The difference in video quality is worth it, at 720p resolutions and above, with the usual long cable runs we routinely have on conferences and meetings.
I'm talking about business notebooks. From Toshiba. Mandated by an enterprise-wide IT department that has only the CEO himself to fear.
Like these
http://eu.computers.toshiba-europe.com/innovation/series/Tecra-M10-Series/1056372/
VGA only. Digital video is for heretics and hopeless perfectionists. A 1400x1050 image on an external projector is meant to be blurry and I like it that way.
And a buggy can be made to roll without a horse.
But our IT department will not believe that, ever.
Those lying around in the bargain bin don't, but you're right, USB2 is hitting its limits there, making USB3 required soon.
The higher speed will be noticed, but the real-world difference is probably not going to blow everyone out of their seats unless they do full drive image backups for a living.
DisplayPort may be more computer-oriented than HDMI, but carrying USB signals doesn't wow me in the least. HDMI's latest standards in 1.4 can do that as well AND Gigabit Ethernet - and they didn't need to implement a totally incompatible format.
A wider range of audio formats? Yes, but why? Really? 2 channels PCM, 5.1 channels DTS, 7.1 channel SDDS and then, what?
Oh and the HDMI has royalties on it. Until the patents run out in 15 years, manufacturers will pay, what, 15 cents, per unit? I can really feel the pain there.
If they need a computer oriented connection, use USB2,3,x - USB video will do fine.
The rest is just reinventing the wheel combined with a nice inner platform effect.
Maybe it's time for another law: "Every connector will evolve until it can read USB"
Then make it 3 standardized classes with different (and downward-compatible) connectors:
A for 20V, 2A
B for 20V, 5A
C for 20V, 10A
Maybe add higher connectors in that fashion, but notebooks needing more than 20V*10A=200W are rare enough. You need a jet-engine-powered fan to put off those 200W of heat anyway, so carrying around a special brick does not add more nuisance to it.
Why don't we make the power brick small and actually build it enough INTO the laptop?
"Silly question", you'll say, but please tell me all those use cases, where the user *can* save on bulk and weight of the power brick and benefits hugely from having the thing in a separate unit dangling along the cable?
A short meeting?
Surfing on the couch for a minute?
Travelling between 2 company offices where you know is another power supply already there?
Compare that to the other use cases:
Travelling with notebook AND power brick AND cable in one large bag.
Rolling and unrolling that cabling every time you pack up your gear for a longer stay.
Have that brick drop to the floor when unpacking
Forget that brick in the office on the way to the meeting-that-saves-the-company?
Mix up two different bricks while packing up after a meeting with business partners?
Make the brick smaller - look at Kensington aftermarket parts - and then include it in the laptop itself. Solves a ton of problems with no further regulation needed.